Phoenix Coyotes vs. Canucks: El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Luongo

Yotes vs. Nucks G18 notes, prediction & tweets!

Safe to say every Canucks player took a long cold shower Sunday night after being shellacked 8-3 by the Detroit Red Wings.

Ugliest game of the year hands down and perhaps the most shocking. The wheels usually come off on the last game of a road trip but not like that.

Roberto Luongo gave up eight goals for the first time since the some 2011 game against Boston and now the city is panicking that the trade shine is gone because apparently most GMs have the memory of a goldfish.

So, home to Van city where the Coyotes would love to exploit the traditional trap game that usually occurs when a team plays their first game back at home. Ready the panic button.

It’s the first meeting of the year for the Canucks and Coyotes, an ongoing trend this week where you realize the Canucks really haven’t played a whole lot of teams in the West yet.

The Canucks will also spend the game making awkward eye contact with Raffi Torres, who was once a Canuck, and agreeing that hurting Marian Hossa is totally a legit thing to do.

What to Watch: Phoenix

It’s a middling season for the Coyotes, who are stuck in what’s looking to be a very tough Pacific Division. As always, the Coyotes are lacking in star power, led in points by the injured Radim Vrbata and the young stud Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

Still, Dave Tippett has been and still is the MVP of the team, a coach that can get water from stone.

Shane Doan will play his first game in Vancouver since almost signing with the Canucks last summer. Doan was trepid about the ownership situation but was eventually convinced to stay.

He can’t be happy that the situation hasn’t resolved itself almost a year later.

Well, there’s always the trade deadline buddy.

The Canucks defence looked atrocious without Kevin Bieksa

Line-up

Mikkel Boedker-Antoine Vermette-Shane Doan

Steve Sullivan-Matthew Lombardi-Lauri Korpikoski

Raffi Torres-Boyd Gordon-David Moss

Nick Johnson-Kyle Chipchura-Paul Bissonnette

Oliver Ekman-Larsson-Zbynek Michalek

Keith Yandle-Rostislav Klesla

Michael Stone-Chris Summers

Mike Smith

What to Watch: Vancouver

Sunday was not pretty and the trick for the Canucks is to pick up the pieces and move on and hope it was nothing more than a blemish.

They’ll be doing with some yoga and probably not Kevin Bieksawho will most likely miss another game with his groin injury.

The Canucks defence looked atrocious without him, but again sample size.

This is the Canucks last game of February as they have a three day break before the Kings are in town on Saturday. They better enjoy those three days because it’s their longest until the end of the year.